Please note: You need to have 'Active content' enabled in your IE browser in order to see the index of articles on this webpage

State Department Defends US Envoy's Criticism of Mugabe
Government

VOA

By David Gollust State Department 08
November 2005

The State Department Tuesday defended U.S.
ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell, who is involved in a bitter verbal
dispute with the government of President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwean officials
have said Mr. Dell might be expelled after his sharp criticism of the Mugabe
government's economic policies.

The State Department says it stands
by Ambassador Dell's blunt criticism of the Mugabe government, and it is
suggesting that authorities in Harare are trying to make the American envoy
a scapegoat for their own economic failures.

The already-difficult
relationship between the United States and the Harare government has become
even more strained since remarks by Ambassador Dell last week in which he
accused Mr. Mugabe of "corrupt rule" and "gross mismanagement" of the
country's economy.

Zimbabwean officials have said that Mr. Dell might be
expelled and the country's state radio quoted President Mugabe as saying
Tuesday the ambassador could "go to hell."

Asked about the reported
remark at a news briefing, State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said
the dispute is not about comments by the American ambassador but rather the
failed economic policies of the Mugabe government, which, he said, have
produced soaring inflation and unemployment and caused Zimbabwe's annual
economic output to shrink by 40 percent in the last five years.

"What
Ambassador Dell is pointing to is the ruinous effects of these polices on
the people of Zimbabwe and the standing of Zimbabwe," he said. "And what has
happened is that they've gone after him personally, which is wrong and
should be condemned, instead of examining what the true problem is, which,
as I said, is failed policies and a consistent and unrelenting attack on I
think the freedoms and initiatives of the Zimbabwean
people."

Spokesman Ereli said Mr. Dell, like other U.S. ambassadors
around the world, will continue to speak out frankly, and that the United
States will not "shy away" from pressing Zimbabwe to adopt transparent,
accountable economic policies that are the norm for the rest of the world,
but which "Zimbabwe seems curiously blind to."

Mr. Ereli said
Zimbabwean officials have not communicated any expulsion threat directly to
Mr. Dell, but said the ambassador has been called to a meeting at the
Zimbabwean foreign ministry Wednesday.

Last month, Mr. Dell was detained
by Zimbabwean security agents as he walked into a restricted area of a
botanical garden near President Mugabe's official residence in Harare. The
State Department said Mr. Dell inadvertently entered the secure area, which
was poorly marked, and that Zimbabwean officials apologized for the
incident.

The Bush
administration has been a persistent critic of Mr. Mugabe, who has ruled
Zimbabwe for 25 years, for economic mismanagement and human rights
violations including repression of dissent and election-rigging.

The
United States imposed economic and travel sanctions against Mr. Mugabe and
other government officials after he was re-elected president in disputed
elections in 2002.

Those sanctions, similar to ones by the European
Union, were widened last year to include several government-connected
businesses.

Senior State Department officials have said in recent weeks
the penalties might be further expanded in response to the controversial
slum clearance program Mr. Mugabe launched in May, that has displaced
hundreds of thousands of people.

Members of the Zimbabwe Trade
Union are taken to a police station in a truck after they were arrested in
Harare

The president and
secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions are among several
labor officials arrested before peaceful demonstrations were broken up by riot
police in Harare and Bulawayo.

The demonstrations were against the rising cost of
living and cheap imported Chinese goods, which unionists say are causing job
losses in the manufacturing sector.

Unionists, many of them women, carried small posters
saying "No to Zhing Zhong", which is derogatory Zimbabwe slang for Chinese
goods. The demonstrators managed to walk around one block in the city center
before scores of riot police, some of them armed, broke up the anti-poverty
march and arrested about 80 people singing union songs.

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions President Lovemore
Matombo and his Secretary General Wellington Chibibe were among those arrested
during the day. Earlier, police arrested at least three top unionists in second
city Bulawayo, and detained a leading Harare civil rights activist.

Union leaders say their march was not political and
therefore they did not need permission from the police to hold their
demonstration.

The unionist demonstrators, who were watched by
several hundred people, want the government to lower personal tax, stop imports
from China, and make it possible for employers to pay workers more.

With inflation approaching 400 percent per year, and
an increase in the cost of food of more than 80 percent in October, most workers
say they can no longer afford to feed their families.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions says it
represents 30 worker organizations with one million members. But the union
movement in Zimbabwe has been greatly weakened in the past six years as hundreds
of thousands of workers have lost jobs as the economy contracted.

It is not clear what the arrested unionists have been
charged with, but they could face charges of breaking Zimbabwe's tough security
laws.

Press Release: International Confederation Of Free Trade
Unions

Mass arrests of Trade Unionists in ZimbabweBrussels: The ICFTU has
condemned the actions of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe following the arrests
today of hundreds of workers, including leaders of the ICFTU-affiliated
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and of ZCTU member organisations.
Large numbers of police have swamped the streets of Harare, reacting to mass
public demonstrations against poverty and hunger caused by the government's
catastrophic policies. At least three other trade union leaders are reported
to have been arrested in the city of Bulawayo on Monday
evening.

"Zimbabwean workers have been forced once again to take to the
streets to protest at the Mugabe government's policies, which have led to a
dramatic deterioration of living standards and widespread hunger. The
heavy-handed response of the authorities, coupled with their ongoing
violations of fundamental workers' rights, show once again a blatant
disregard for working people and their families", said ICFTU General
Secretary Guy Ryder. "We call upon the government to immediately release all
those detained, and to respect the rights of working people as enshrined in
international law" he added.

Today's arrests are the latest in a
catalogue of anti-union repression in Zimbabwe, amidst a worsening economic
crisis and growing unrest amongst the many victims of the government's
policies. The ICFTU and its Global Unions partners are closely monitoring
the situation, and will keep up the pressure for the full recognition of
workers' rights at the International Labour Organisation and in other
international bodies.

Aborting democracy, rearing ethnicity

New Zimbabwe

By John B.
Mkobi and Bulelani MokoenaLast updated: 11/09/2005 14:50:39WE HAVE
followed with interest the unfolding saga in the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC). It is trite to mention that most of us are relying on both the
print (public and private) and electronic media for information about what
is happening within the MDC.

Media institutions tend to take a certain
slant when reporting issues, especially one about a major rift in a hitherto
significant political formation like the MDC. But be that as it may, what we
have read and heard so far seems to be a fair picture of the goings-on in
the once mighty MDC. On the face of it, the issue that has divided the MDC
is whether or not to participate in the upcoming senatorial elections. Let
us examine the issue as presented to us in the media.

In a democracy,
when two opposing views on an issue emerge and there is a stalemate, the
issue is put to a vote. We are failing to find a place for the argument that
the National Council of the MDC is elitist. It is one of that party's
decision-making bodies that were established in accordance with the party's
constitution. The assumption of all reasonable men and women is that all
what the MDC has done in the last six years was guided by the party's
constitution. In the past six years of the party's existence, the National
Council made decisions that were respected by all members of the party,
including Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai.

Before the March 2005 parliamentary
elections, the MDC, after much disconfitting dithering, met in the same way
that they have done recently to consider a boycott or participation. We were
told that the majority of the provinces had voted for participation. They
entered the election race with a heavy heart.

Why then, all of a
sudden, should the National Council become an illegitimate structure? Is it
because Mr. Tsvangirai did not get his way? There was more at stake during
the parliamentary elections in March in terms of legitimacy that was sought
by Zanu PF. Why do we get arguments like "Votocracy is not democracy" at
this stage? So "Votocracy was democracy" only when Mr. Tsvangirai's views
carried the day? Sorry by the way Mr. Tsvangirai is said to have confided in
the votocracy priest that his personal views were to not participate in the
March parliamentary election (Standard 30 October 2005 page 9). This is
quite a revelation.

The difference between the March 2005 National
Council decision on participation and the Senatorial Election saga is that
in the former, Mr. Tsvangirai felt bound by the "Collective responsibility"
principle of all democrats. The will of the majority in the context of the
vote subordinated that of the minority. This is important for all of us to
appreciate including our compatriots in parliament. The laws of Zimbabwe
that were passed in the presence of MDC legislators are not Zanu PF laws
unless one is addressing a rally. They are Zimbabweans laws in the sense
that the principle we alluded to still applies. The fact that they are bad
laws is another issue altogether.

This, therefore, tells us that the
MDC saga, while it is an internal party squabble, has lessons to all of us
that democracy has its challenges. Even when you may be proved in future to
have been right, it behoves you to respect the decision of the majority as
defined by the party's constitution. How are we to know that the
Tsvangirai-led faction has the people behind it before we get to the Party's
Congress? Perhaps for now the pro-senate faction may claim some following
based on the number of provinces that registered candidates for the
forthcoming elections. If media reports are anything to go by, then close to
seven (7) provinces are pro-senate elections.

If one were to visit
the anti-senate argument one gets the impression that when the MDC entered
the election race in 2000 there was a level playing field. Is that so? What
other option, if one may ask, was available to the MDC in the context of our
political dispensation, as we know it today? How, for instance, does the
anti-senate election hero intend to mobilise people given the spectacular
and embarrassing failures of mass action in recent times?

We hold no
brief for the pro-senate election lobby. Admittedly, the Senate will not
bring bread to the tables of Zimbabweans. But from a strategic and tactical
point of view it could be helpful for the MDC to participate in the
election. The argument that the same people who opposed the 17th Amendment
should not be the same people who support participation in the senate
election is burdensome syllogism. The MDC MPs opposed the 17th Amendment out
of principle. Zanu PF had the majority in parliament which passed the
Amendment. It is now law. It is now reality. In life we deal with objective
reality. This is what informs your strategy and tactics. Does this not take
us back to the Daily News saga where ANZ refused to register on grounds that
AIPPA was unconstitutional only to have the dirty hands doctrine hurled at
them by the Supreme Court? Chances are that if ANZ had registered they could
still be publishing today and no doubt the struggle for democracy in this
country would be many steps forward now. The absence of a paper like the
Daily News has taken the struggle for democracy countless steps
backwards.

In the absence of identifiable viable extra-parliamentary
alternatives, it is playing macho to call fellow democracy crusaders
sellouts simply because they do not share your view. It is such a shame when
Cleops begins to sniff blood because he has been told that he is seeing only
part of the world! The term 'sell-out' is normally used by tyrannical and
single-track absolutists whose world is either black or white. To them, you
either agree with them or you are an enemy. In their political culture, an
enemy has to be eliminated. Isn't God kind to us that in his wisdom he
delayed His Deliverance in 2002? We would have jumped from the frying pan
into the fire! The MDC is in an arm of Government - National Assembly. They
are in government by consensus. They need the same consensus to pull out of
government altogether if we are to listen to the senate boycott.

The
current constitution is, admittedly, one of the most defective pieces of
legislation that needs Zimbabweans' common effort to correct. Let us please
stop calling it the Lancaster House Constitution. With 17 home inspired
amendments and with an 18th one on the cards, how does it remain a Lancaster
House Constitution? It is sad that we have a severe drought of gray matter
when it comes to what we shall call the national good.

Franz Fanon in
The Wretched of the Earth makes a very pertinent observation about oppressed
people. During the struggle for independence they all rally behind the
leadership elite in the hope that the future will be bright. Unbeknown to
them is that the ruling elite in the post Independence era habour
aristocratic ambitions akin to those of colonial rulers they sought to
overthrow. Hence the rise of tyranny and dictatorship. The same applies in
the post-colonial struggle for democracy. When you have a leader of a party
that is supposed to be a government-in-waiting publicly repudiating the
party constitution on grounds that it was authored by his enemies what other
hope can you have? One of his major functions is to defend the constitution
at all times and not to rubbish it when its processes yield an uncomfortable
outcome. If the same leader can organise hit squads to eliminate 'enemies'
within the party, what should you expect from him when he is in charge of
all the awesome state instruments of coercion? Mighty, merciful God, thank
you for delaying your Deliverance in 2002. You know all of us very
well!

The tragedy of African politics is the inability to accept opposing
views. This is further complicated by the ethnic factor. All along we have
believed that the MDC is a 'rainbow' party with all its leaders elected on a
democratic ticket. Were we wrong? The Management Committee of Six, as far as
we believe, was agreed to in accordance with the party constitution. Those
who sit in that committee do so by virtue of their positions to which they
were elected democratically, unless we were misled in the past six years.
Even those who are not in the Management Committee but hold certain
positions, such as the party spokesman, were either appointed using
constitutionally delegated authority (which is perfectly democratic) or they
were directly elected. We are therefore quite intrigued by Mr. Morgan
Tsvangirai's outburst that the pro-senate lobby is vending a tribal/regional
agenda. We are baffled even more by the zealous peddling of this
breathtaking and clearly divisive claim by the so-called observers,
commentators and analysts. This issue is about strategy and tactics. Perhaps
Mr. Tsvangirai may find it worth his while to educate us about how it is a
tribal/regional issue. Why are tribal/regional allegations so handy in
Zimbawe's political discourse? Remember that after the 2000 parliamentary
elections a senior Zanu PF official made an outburst about the results in
Matabeleland as if it was only there where people had voted against Zanu PF.
He said, "The vote in Matabeleland was tribal!" So much for tribalists and
regionalists! Any clue about where Mr. Tsvangirai cut his political
teeth?

Let us cast off all pretensions. There are tribes in Zimbabwe and
people belong to these tribes. We are all tribal, at least to the extent
that a tribe is a social/anthropological formation with an identifiable
culture. Nations are apex formations. Rules and regulations are meant to
surbodinate, in an orderly manner, our primordial dispositions to a higher
multicultural way of life. They are a covenant that brings order in our
lives. When the more regarded amongst us choose to be free from these
regulations, then we are back to the state of nature, where life is nasty,
brutish and short. Let us not tribalise issues in order to score cheap
short-term political victories.

Opinion leaders in Zimbabwe must be
responsible in their articulation of issues. They must look beyond what
coincides with their political philosophy. The reason why we have a
political crisis in this country is the belief in absolute positions. The
national good, which, in simple terms is the welfare of the ordinary people,
has been turned into narrow party and individual dogmas. Yet the truth is
that Zimbabwe belongs to all of us who respect its flag and its existence as
a unitary State. The mandarins in both Zanu PF and MDC are but passing
actors in a permanent stage that is Zimbabwe. None of them is more
Zimbabwean than you and I. None of them has right in their pocket or under
their armpit.

As the MDC/Zanu PF internal squabbles rage on let it be
placed on record that Zimbabwe is bigger than both parties put together.
Their failure to address the issues that uplift the lives of our people may
not be for given by posterity. Let us remember that there was Zimbabwe
before Zanu PF and MDC and there will be Zimbabwe after the two
institutions. The prosperity of this country lies in our collective effort
as Zimbabweans to seek the common issues that may make the lives of our
people worth living. Those who masquerade as national heroes when in fact
they are sectarian to the core shall reap thorns. As we forge ahead we need
always to remember posterity. Look at your child and ask yourself: Am I
laying a firm foundation for the future of this child?

For those in
the MDC, they owe it to the millions of those who voted for them to show
maturity in what they say and do. By all means avoid the tribal card. There
are many examples in history, including the war of liberation here and the
nasty events of the Great Lakes region, that bigotry and arrogance in the
conduct of national affairs can be very costly. Let us not allow history to
repeat itself. History tends to repeat itself in worse forms! We have a
collective responsibility to see a bigger picture. We are all Zimbabweans.
We are all equal. There are no underdogs. Let us unite in dignity. Only then
will our unity endure the test of time and Zimbabwe will be the marvel that
it rightly deserves to be.

The dignity of all Zimbabweans is sacrosanct
and let no one delude themselves that they are more Zimbabwean than others.
Like birds in the air, we can enjoy our Zimbabwean space without collisions,
only if we respect each other and think beyond shot-term political
gains.John B. Mkobi and Bulelani Mokoena write from Ireland and can be
contacted at mamainpeace@yahoo.ie

This is neither a quote from Dante's
work or Sophocles' pieces of poetic wizardry. It is not a plagiarised
statement from Homer's Greek epics as embodied in the Odyssey (Ulysses) and
the Iliad. The statement has too much hatred embedded in it that it can
never be one of the greatest statements to be coined, uttered or penned by
the world's front runners in literature.

Move over Papa Doc,
enter Baba vaChatunga! The dirty and delirious ranting and rampant attack on
reason has assumed newer and deadlier proportions. No-one beats the brute in
his smelly game of impiety and iniquity.

The Ancient Greek god
of the underworld, Hades, has an able and sinister right-hand man who is
working tirelessly to condemn whole generations of meek and docile
Zimbabweans to the dark world of doom and eternal calamity.

Hell is neither above us nor deep down in the abysses of dejection.

Hell is in Mugabe's Zimbabwe and the devil is Zimbabwe's Mugabe! If this
assertion be refuted, how does one explain the suffering, the rape, the
vagrancy of esteemed persons, the displacement of people with highly
respected skills from Zimbabwe, the begging bowls on Zimbabwe's highways
(especially from Beit Bridge in Matebeleland South to Chivi in Masvingo) and
the general turmoil?

How can one explain the multiplier effect
of the voter-population in the distressed district of UMP? How can one
explain the hunger that pervades in our midst? How can we explain the
disappearance of the family unit; the incest, the cursed marriages, the
dogged relationships, the sickness, the disease and the wholesale death of
the citizens of a promising nation? How can we explain all this
evil?

Shame on us! Shame on all Zimbabweans! This ill and
unpleasantness cannot be blamed wholesomely on the collective ineptitude or
political clumsiness of the people of UMP. Perhaps they could be culpably
blamed for the lesser crime of being the cheer-leaders in the amphitheatre
of blood sport where our people are slaughtered for the fun of the
oligarchic murderer.

If the truth be told as it is, all
Zimbabweans are to blame for giving Robert Mugabe the impetus to take our
children and have them savagely raped on his impotent behalf by his
important lieutenants such as Black Jesus (forbid if its blasphemy) and
Comrade Satan (sounds very fitting). Poor young victims of rape! When they
finally come back home they bleat Mugabe's gospel and act as small spies for
his movement of disgrace.

About the (verbatim) quote above, all
that can be humanly concluded is that it is poison from the wicked
concoction prepared by the witching caretaker of misery in the cauldron of
doom and voodoo to be used to cast a subjugating spell on the people of
Zimbabwe.

Poor Zimbabweans! They are accepting with both hands kegs
that are filled to the brim with the deadly potions. Watch the submissive
and taciturn people drink the bitter stuff with unvoiced concern. Look at
the ugly faces the suppressed servants make as they take ill-omened gulps of
the obnoxious poison that will further and farther dent their suspect
health.

You would not be wrong if you concluded that it was a quote
from the satanic verses; not as expounded upon by Salmon Rushdie who has a
fatwa avowed on him by the mullahs, the sheiks, the imams, the ayatollahs
and the Taliban. It is a classless rant by the devil himself as he
proclaimed a murderous fatwa for all of Zimbabwe and all
Zimbabweans.

It is a satanic statement fired as a broadside to
imaginary enemies by the paranoid octogenarian from Murombedzi/Zvimba. For
the uninitiated, Zvimba is the birth-place of one old man who has managed to
feed his starving people with diatribe and barrages of cruelty and
shame.

Woe unto you Zimbabweans! The proclamation of fate has been
signed, sealed and delivered to your door-steps. A fatwa such as the one
Mugabe has proclaimed on you all means your fate has been designed for a
pre-mature visit to the underworld. You are on death-row waiting the
executioner to crown your neck with a murderous noose laced with lethal
doses for Mugabe's sadistic pleasure.

Perhaps that is why
people run-away from Mugabe's death-row in Harare and land at Heath-row
Airport! May be persecuted persons like the previously financially well-up
James Makamba can explain how it is to have been Mugabe's henchman. The
sudden unkind extension of a murderous fatwa on him would add to the
excitement of studying Zimbabwe's hell on Zvimba soil!

I shall
strategically digress at this juncture!

Speaking of Makamba, my
moneyless mole at Charing Cross who is known as Marihobo Sekeramayi says he
saw James Makamba enjoying an efficient ride in a tube carriage on the
Northern Line. My spy says the man looked visibly shaken by all sorts and a
bit on the dishevelled side. He was probably brooding over his current
status as a refugee who used his democratic decision to flee from the fleas
in his mentor's jail.

My mole says he was positively evasive at
people with Zimbabwean features. He was also suspected of having made a
wrong turn into The Strand where CIO agents are concentrated for the longer
life of Mugabe (UK Chapter).

He was possibly contemplating a
way of convincing the Home Office that he was an MDC activist who had been
flashed from Zanu PF Headquarters in Harare after working there incognito
for many, many years and much more moons and weeks earning himself zillions
of Zim-Dollars!

You can imagine on your own what Mugabe has done to
the people of Zimbabwe. Think locally and give your thoughts a global touch.
Think of the people of UNP. Given the fair chance and an airfare to
Heathrow, all of UMP denizens would be claiming asylum in the UK for having
been forced to dance in self-demeaning fashion during a mock voting exercise
in Ntawatawa (not vaguely related to wa Dabudabu) by the axe-wielding
ex-combatants.

If this hypothesis can be proven, then Mugabe has no
support; not even from Grace and Chatunga. Rumour says Chatunga is destined
to enrol for a cheap degree in one of the expensive colleges in the United
Kingdom in the not so distant future; for he is a small boy with enigmatic
"learning abilities".

True!

Masola wa Dabudabu is
a columnist for New Zimbabwe.com and was previously a regular columnist with
the banned Daily News. He writes from London. CONTACT MASOLA: hopemasola@hotmail.com

Fears for trade union members following Harare protest
arrests

The Star

November 9, 2005

By Peta Thornycroft and Tawanda
Mashingaidze

Harare - On the corner of two streets named after
Southern African heroes, most of the leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions and about 200 peaceful demonstrators, many of them women, were
arrested yesterday.

South African trade union federation Cosatu
says up to 200 people were arrested.

Several ZCTU leaders were
still at large yesterday and fears have been expressed about the safety of
four executive members taken into custody by the army.

Mlamleli
Sibanda, Last Tarabuku, Tabita Khumalo and Leonard Ngwenzi were last seen
being dragged from a ZCTU minibus by soldiers at a roadblock in central
Harare shortly before 1pm .

Cosatu has called for solidarity with
the workers and the poor of Zimbabwe.

It asked for President
Robert Mugabe to intervene and ensure the immediate release of those
arrested and for the scrapping of the draconian Public Order Security Act,
which it said would soon allow only cabinet ministers to
gather.

"Reports we have now is that at least 200 people have been
arrested in Harare alone," Cosatu said.

The anti-poverty march
began at the corner of Nelson Mandela and Leopold Takawira streets on the
western edge of the city centre, with songs about poverty and placards
against "zhing-zhong", which is Zimbabwe slang for poor-quality Chinese
goods.

Within 10 minutes, scores of well-equipped riot police
moved in and ended the march.

The singing protesters were told
to climb into a large lorry and a bakkie and were taken off to Harare
Central police station. Police cordoned off Leopold Takawaria Street,
named after one of the founders of the ruling Zanu-PF, diverted the
traffic, kept their dogs on their leashes, and without much fuss ended the
demonstration almost as quickly as it began, watched by hundreds of
bystanders.

On Monday night, two Bulawayo ZCTU officials were
arrested, and at dawn a third was picked up there.

ZCTU
president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibebe were
arrested in the city centre while walking to the point where the march
started.

a.. Sapa-AFP reports that Zimbabwe's High Court
yesterday nullified the suspension of opposition lawmaker Job Sikhala, who
claimed his party had received US$2,5-million (about R16,5-million) in
illegal funding from Ghana, Nigeria and Taiwan, his lawyer
said.

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai
suspended Sikhala late last month for "bringing the party into
disrepute".

Sudan at the head of a global sweep to mop up world's oil
resources

Declan Walsh in KhartoumWednesday November 9, 2005The
Guardian

A tangle of pipes and metallic towers rises over the
shimmering, rock-strewn desert north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum. The
gleaming oil refinery is the jewel of Sudan's oil boom, the mid-point of a
900-mile pipeline from the southern oilfields to the Red Sea that is
projected to pump 500,000 barrels a day by the end of this year.But if
the oil is African, the money and management are Chinese. Inside the
refinery gates, Chinese engineers man the distillation towers, Chinese cooks
serve rice and noodles in the canteen, and workers pedal between the giant
oil drums on bicycles imported from Beijing.

"We
like Sudan very much," said Zhao Yujun, 35, a manager with the state-owned
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which built the sprawling plant
five years ago. "China needs energy for economic growth. There is oil in
Africa. That is why we have come here."China is prowling the globe in search
of energy sources. Oil executives and diplomats have signed a flurry of
deals, from Canada to Kazakhstan. The scramble has triggered unease in
Washington, where American conservatives worry about China's growing
economic muscle, but has sparked an unprecedented engagement with
Africa.

Chinese business is blazing a trail across the continent. Trade
with China has almost tripled in five years. Railways in Angola, roads in
Rwanda, a port in Gabon and a dam in Sudan have all been paid for with
Chinese loans and built by Chinese contractors. Business with Nigeria and
South Africa is booming. And this year China is expected to overtake the UK
as Africa's third largest trading partner.

The driving ingredient is
oil. China's flagship African project is in Sudan. Isolation from the west
meant that Khartoum barely pumped a barrel of crude a decade ago. Now, after
intensive Chinese investment, it has the third largest oil business in
sub-Saharan Africa.

China shipped in thousands of workers to build the
Heglig pipeline in record time, and a second pipeline is under construction.
The Khartoum refinery - CNPC's first outside China - opened in late 1999,
just in time for the 10th anniversary of the coup that brought military
leader Omar al Bashir to power.

The gamble has paid off handsomely.
Sudan is expected to earn more than $1bn in oil revenues this year and its
economy is one of the fastest growing in Africa. Meanwhile, China has won a
new ally to fuel its thirsty factories and exploding rate of car
ownership.

"Our agreement is an example to
others," said Mohamed Atif, the Sudanese deputy general manager. "The
Chinese say they are communists and socialists but they are deeply involved
in the capitalist system," he said.

Where western companies shy away
because of corruption, conflict or the risk of losing their shirt, Chinese
firms are plunging in. President Hu Jintao has dispatched diplomats to
dangle large, low-interest loans before impoverished countries with the sole
stipulation that work is done by Chinese contractors.

African
governments also appreciate China's tendency to keep its nose out of
domestic affairs. In contrast with the demands for transparency that
accompany loans from international bodies such as the International Monetary
Fund, Chinese help comes on a strictly "no questions asked"
basis.

But human rights campaigners warn that this one-track expansionism
offers succour to rogue leaders and undermines efforts to foster
transparency in some of Africa's most notorious governments. Earlier this
year, Angola's president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who presides over a
famously oil-rich but poverty-stricken country, received a £1.1bn line of
credit from Beijing.

Beijing also came to the rescue of Zimbabwe's
embattled president, Robert Mugabe, presenting him with ornamental tiles for
the roof of his palace and an honorary degree in recognition of his
"remarkable contribution in the work of diplomacy and international
relations".

"If you're a corrupt government that wants loans with no
conditions, you will like the Chinese. But it's not good for the people of
the country," said Sarah Wykes of Global Witness, a UK-based lobby
group.

Western hostility towards Sudan's military regime paved the way
for one of China's sweetest deals in Africa. In 1996, when the regime was an
international pariah for sheltering Osama bin Laden and human rights abuses,
CNPC bought shares in a government oil venture on highly favourable
terms.

At the Khartoum refinery, Sudanese and Chinese co-workers
communicate in a mix of Arabic, Chinese and English. In offices Chinese
officials play with their mobile phones beside Muslim managers kneeling on
prayer mats.

But in the city Sudanese businessmen grumble that Chinese
projects give little and take much. "They bring everything from China -
labour, materials, the lot," said one prominent trader who asked not to be
named.

South Africans worry that cheap imports are swamping their textile
industry. Others say that China is stingy with humanitarian aid and that its
secretive culture fuels bribery and corruption.

But there are also
hints that the blinkered "no questions asked" policy is shifting. China has
deployed peacekeepers to UN missions in Liberia and Congo.

When
Sudan's terrible rights record in Darfur came before the UN security council
in March, Beijing was expected to veto it. Instead, to Khartoum's dismay, it
abstained.

"It suggests the Chinese are becoming sensitive about their
image," said Jemera Rone of Human Rights Watch. And we see that as a good
thing."

Treatment of the parasitic infection schistosomiasis (also known as
bilharzia) results in a stabilisation in HIV viral load and an improvement
in CD4 cell count in HIV-positive people, Danish and Zimbabwean researchers
report in the December 1st edition of the Journal of Infectious
Diseases.

Schistosomiasis is a widespread parasitic infection in southern
Africa. It is a debilitating parasitic disease caused by five different
kinds of flatworm or blood fluke (helminth). 500 to 600 million people are
at risk worldwide, in 74 countries, of whom 20 million are severely ill,
another 120 million have some symptoms and another 60 million or more are
infected. Its economic impact is second only to malaria, in reducing
productivity at work and in limiting children's ability to learn.

It
is common in large parts of Africa with two main kinds - S. mansoni (whose
eggs are shed into faeces) and S. haematobium (whose eggs are shed into
urine). Eggs pass into water where they rest on water plants, until eaten by
snails where they grow into larvae that are then shed into fresh water.
These larvae then pass into the bodies of people who enter the water.

The
Schistosomiasis and HIV cohort was established in Zimbabwe to look at the
interaction between schistosomiasis and HIV, following the observation that
generalised immune activation caused by schistosomiasis might increase the
rate of HIV disease progression.

As part of the cohort's research a
randomised study was carried out to test the effects of schistosomiasis
treatment in HIV-positive people. The study randomised 287 people with and
without HIV infection who were infected with schistosomiasis to receive
immediate treatment with praziquantel or treatment deferred for three
months.

Two hundred and twenty eight participants were available for
follow-up, of whom 130 were HIV-positive. Comparison between HIV-positive
participants who received immediate treatment and those who received
deferred treatment showed a difference of -0.21 log10 copies/ml after three
months, favouring the immediate treatment group (p=0.03). In the deferred
treatment group viral load continued to rise whilst it stabilised in the
immediate treatment group.

CD4 counts rose in all patients who
received treatment irrespective of HIV status, suggesting that
schistosomiasis is a widespread cause of immune suppression in Africa, and
further highlighting the need for cohort studies in sub-Saharan Africa
outside South Africa that can quantify the relationship between viral load,
CD4 count and disease progression, in order to determine whether there are
regional differences in the predictive value of internationally recognised
thresholds such as a CD4 cell count of 200 cells/mm3.

Using data from
a European cohort, the authors estimate that a decrease in viral load of
-0.21 log10 copies/ml would be associated with a reduction in mortality of
between 1.9 and 7-fold. However they caution that the 95% confidence
interval for the viral load change was between -0.39 log and 0.02log10
copies/ml, and that an0ther study has shown that any suppressive effect of
schistosomiasis treatment on HIV viral load disappears after six months.
They conclude that while their study supports the view that schistosomiasis
increases HIV viral load, further operational research is needed to
determine whether schistosomiasis interventions should be incorporated into
the current initiatives for providi ng ART in areas where both infections
are endemic.

We Can't Afford a Split.....Especially One to be Perceived as Tribal

----- Original Message ----- From: Zwelibanzi Ndlovu

Greetings!I
can imagine how Mugabe is celebrating. What he doesn't know is that the
celebration is going to be short-lived.We cannot afford a split in the
MDC. Period. It is worse that the split is now being given a tribal
slant.In the MDC we have many, many, many things in common that unite us and
a few that split us. We need to recognise the things that unite us and build
on them to overcome this very temporary crisis. We need to remember that we
do not belong to ourselves but to the people of Zimbabwe. Each time we hurl
insults at each other (especially in public) we are insulting the Zimbabwean
people. The only winner in this public name calling is Mugabe and ZANU
PF.The need to drop everything that magnifies our differences and focus on
reconciling the the two sides should be utmost in our minds and top in
priority out of all items on all our agenda.The MDC is the only true
representative of the Zimbabwean people. Let us not put this truth in the
past tense. We have a unique opportunity to prove, not so much to the rest
of Zimbabwe and the world, but most importantly to ourselves that we can
stay focussed on the strategic even in the advent of tactical challenges.
What is facing the MDC now is a tactical issue not a strategic one. Let us
subjugate our personal interests in favour of the interests of the
Zimbabwean people.I propose the following.1. As a starting point
let us stop name calling.2. Let us stop communicating with each other
through the media.3. Let us only communicate to the media as one
voice.4. Let the two sides meet face-to-face (closed door, no
media).5. Let us communicate the message that even as we are going
through what we are going through, the reconcilliation effort is running in
parrallel. Let this be communicated through the media.6. Let both
sides apologise to the Zimbabwean people for having allowed the "split" to
go public. With this apology we can only come out stronger.7. Let both
sides commit to the fact that regardless of the outcome of the meeting the
MDC shall continue to listen to the people. As our leaders fight in public
let them understand that they should be asking the people and not telling
them what to do. Leadership is a combination of listening to and speaking
to the people we lead. Often we like to listen only to ourselves and not to
those we lead and represent.

Sibanda calls for
Ndebele stateThe Daily Mirror Reporterissue date :2005-Nov-08THE
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) deputy president, Gibson Sibanda is
advocating the establishment of an independent state for the
Ndebele-speaking people.Speaking last week at a campaign rally to
drum-up support for the MDC faction that has decided to participate in the
senatorial elections slated for November 26, Sibanda said the establishment
of the state would be the only way that could guarantee the Ndebele-speaking
people total sovereignty."Ndebeles can only exercise sovereignty through
creating their state like Lesotho, which is an independent state in South
Africa and it is not politically wrong to have the State of Matabeleland
inside Zimbabwe," said Sibanda.The rally entourage included the main
opp! osition's secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, national treasurer,
Fletcher Dulini Ncube, Paul Themba Nyathi, the national spokesperson and
Esaph Mdlongwa, the organising secretary.Some observers project that the
tribal sentiments expressed by Sibanda could worsen the split in the MDC,
saying there is a possibility of further cracks along ethnic lines.They
say the Karanga, Zezuru and Manyika-speaking sub-ethnic groups might feel
threatened by the call for the formation of a Ndebele state and could
organise themselves into a grouping opposed to the one that Ncube
leads.Ncube is widely considered to be the leader of the pro-senate faction
that has been embroiled in bitter battles with party leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, and his camp.Sibanda also used the rally to call for the
total disregard of Tsvangirai in his trail to campaign against running in
the senatorial elections, with Ncube describing his embattled boss as being
"too dangerous not only to the MDC but to the rest! of the country as
well".Ncube at an earlier rally in Tsholotsho, queried where Tsvangirai was
getting the money to hire youths who he alleged were being used to
decampaign the senatorial preparations by the former's faction.The
previous day, in Hwange and Binga, Sibanda took a swipe at the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) for pushing anti-senate agenda.The NCA
last week staged street protests against the senate, which it argues was
imposed on the people by the rulingZanu PF.The Ncube campaign team used
the opportunity to formally introduce Dalimuzi Khumalo as the MDC senatorial
candidate for Lupane/Nkayi.In Hwange West/Tsholotsho, the chief executive
officer of the now dormant Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), which
published the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo,
was officially declared the candidate for the constituency.Small
political parties, such as Zapu, and pressure groups have also in the past
advocated an independent or semi-autonomous Ndebele state which would
assume a federal dimension, with power being devolved from national
government.But that has been viewed as divisive and untenable in some
circles.In 1987, Zanu PF and the then Zapu hammered out any accord, with
both parties arguing that it would promote unity among Zimbabwe's mainly
Shona and Ndebele tribes.Recently, Parliament, which is dominated by
Zanu PF, re-introduced the bicameral system comprising an Upper House and
the lower assembly.The re-introduction of the Senate has had debilitating
effects on the MDC, as reflected in the bickering that has been occurring,
with the opposed factions publicly trading words and working to undermine
each other.A total of 27 MDC candidates defied Tsvangirai and elected to
stand in the senatorial elections, following a narrow pro-Senate vote in the
national council of the opposition party.Tsvangirai recently gave the
"rebels" an ultim! atum to renounce their decision to participate, saying
they risked being expelled from the MDC, but the other group has remained
adamant that it is following council resolutions.